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By Florian B. Janoski

The annual consumption of electric blasting caps in the United States approaches 100,000,000, so, over the last eleven to twelve years about one billion have been used. The author has made hazard assessment measurements in connection with proposed electric blasting operations in many places: under a giant, operating electrical generating station, under some of the highest voltage power lines in the country, and around many large electrical distribution substations. Electric blasting was safely conducted in all instances. Measurements of stray current, and of pickup under high voltage power lines are easily made, but it was always a more complex chore to make a good radio frequency hazard assessment "close in" to a high power RF transmitting source.

Jan 1, 1977

By Hike Humphreys, Geoff Baldwin

A project aimed at blast optimisation for large open pit coal mines is utilising blast monitoring and analysis techniques, advanced dragline monitoring equipment, and blast simulation software, to assess the major controlling factors affecting both blast performance and subsequent dragline productivity. This has involved collaborative work between the explosives supplier, mine operator, monitoring equipment manufacturer, and a mining research organisation.

Jan 1, 1994

By Syed M. Tariq, Paul N. Worsey

Pre-splitting is now widely used to minimize overbreak and to protect final surface rock excavation profiles in large scale civil construction projects, open pit mining and quarrying. Jointing has been shown to affect the success of pre-splitting and the smoothness and integrity of the resulting rock face. Many facets of jointing have been investigated in detail, including the inclination of joints with respect to the desired pre-split plane, the effects of various filling materials, etc. However, the effects of joint frequency and spatial positioning has been paid little attention. The paper addresses this issue.

Jan 1, 1995

By K R. Sharpe, A Davitt

CXA is currently evaluating, in co-operation with Inco Metals, a new idea in small diameter hole blasting - the Unidelay Nonel initiation system. In concept, the Unidelay system is a hybrid of the conventional multi-period Nonel system and the safety fuse assembly/igniter cord system. It combines the operational advantages of the latter, simplicity and flexibility, with those of the former, safety and compatibility with all commercial explosives.

Jan 1, 1982

By Wang Zhong Qian, Liu Hui

The paper proposed a fractal and damage model for rock-breaking by blasting, which assumed that the process of rock-breaking results from intrincent fractal development and the accumulation of damage. Remarkably, the process is of fracture character. Based on the model, a computer program is compiled to calculate the 3-dimension damage distribution in blasting crater. Trial results agree well with the predicted results, showing the model set up in the paper is sound.

Jan 1, 1997

By Harnish Miller, Scott G. Giltner

One of the concerns with locating radioactive waste storage sites in salt deposits is how to permanently seal the underground storage areas once they have reached their storage capacity. The compaction of salt using explosives has been identified as a potential method of producing permanent seals in both entryways and shafts to storage areas. This paper describes the test procedure and results of a preliminary investigation to determine the feasibility of utilizing explosives in the compaction of salt. Three simple tests were carried out to measure the degree to which loose salt could be compacted.

Jan 1, 1996

By J Paul Tidman, Stephen H. Chung

One of the requirements in open pit gold mines is to minimise the mixing of ore and waste. Dilution can be reduced by choke blasting and control of the initiating sequencing. The authors have used the DMC computer model (developed at SANDIA) to examine the effects of timing and charge distribution on ore dilution. The model has been calibrated by measurements of vertical uplift derived from high speed videos made at the Dome Super Pit in Timmins.

Jan 1, 1997

By Braden Lusk, Kyle Perry

Recent events and MSHA actions have resulted in discussion and reevaluation of the practice of sealing abandoned coal mine workings. In the past, MSHA has approved alternative seals based on a pass/fail system that required minimal engineering. Disasters involving fatalities led MSHA to impose higher seal pressure requirements based on research and experiments. Impending new MSHA seal regulations will force manufacturers and industry to obtain a high level of engineering expertise. The expertise necessary is in the field of blast resistant design, which is not easily accessible due to the limited number of experienced individuals within the mining industry.

Jan 1, 2008

This is the story of a blast - not a large blast by todays standards as it only involved a total of approximately 50 cubic yards of rock. Nor did this blast involve any new or revolutionary blasting technique or require involved analysis or the applications of rock mechanics theories. Instead, it was a blast that involved the tried-and-true principles of good blasting: precise alignment of blastholes; selection of explosives and detonators designed for the conditions encountered; extreme care in loading and hooking up and the use of several ingenious devices and techniques to achieve the proper loading and firing of the blast

Jan 1, 1976

By Thomas P. Dowling

Historically, laws controlling the manufacture, sale, transportation and storage of high explosives and regulations governing the use of explosives were formulated to prevent accidents or eliminate incidents that might jeopardize public safety. Many of the original laws and regulations regarding classification of explosives and blasting materials, tables of distances for separation and/or isolation of explosives, construction of storage magazines and methods of blasting were based upon empirical data, field experiments or scientific facts. During the past few years, however, it appears that some of the explosive laws and blasting regulations introduced and/or enacted by federal, state and local agencies seem to be based more on political expediency than on factual information or technical data.

Jan 1, 1976

By A Lance McAnuff, Marcus V. van Bers, Andrew Curic

During the summers of 1992 and 1993, blasting operations were carried out to effect the crossing of two of Canada's better known game rivers, the Nipigon and Winnipeg, in connection with the completion of a third natural gas utility across north-western Ontario. The Nipigon River, crossed in 1992, involved a single fast-flowing channel while the Winnipeg River, crossed in 1993, involved three separate channels.

Jan 1, 1994

By Charles H. Dowding

Public concern over blast-induced CRACKING has led to the search for a radically new approach to vibration control. The present system, while scientifically correct, is cumbersome to explain. Historically the potential for blast-induced cracking has come to be described through velocity time histories, which are correlated with observation of crack extension under controlled experimental conditions. Unfortunately time histories are simply too difficult for jurors and village or county regulatory boards to understand. Furthermore these arbiters must accept on faith that the observers were unbiased. Since these public bodies control the manner in which blasting activity is adjudicated and regulated, information must be presented in a form they can understand and that is not subject to second-guessing.

Jan 1, 1999

By Ettore Contestabile, Cameron Thomas

Implosive-type electrical/mechanical connectors such as XECONEX have been used extensively for joining electrical transmission lines. This implosive action of explosives has also been applied to other forms of high energy metal working with excellent results. However, as with many other products, the inherent blast energy of these units has caused some environmental concerns especially when used in proximity to inhabited areas.

Jan 1, 1995

By Vaughn Bowns, Allen Stanley, Brian Redeker

"Running casing in drilling operations is often complicated by boulders or large cobbles.Past practices of dealing with these have included use of drop hammers, attempts to drillthrough or around the boulder, contact explosive charges and even pulling the casing andrepositioning the hole. All these methods are time consuming, expensive and offer noguarantee of success. In this paper a different method of dealing with these boulders ispresented that promises to be faster and less expensive with a much higher success rate.This involves using a light plastic conduit pipe to place a shaped explosive against theboulder. It requires no special tools or techniques not commonly in use in the drilling andblasting industry."

Jan 1, 1993

By Quian Liu

The problem of cross-hole explosive malfunctioning in rock blasting (including sympathetic detonation, desensitization and cut-offs) is a function of delay and spacing in a blast which should be designed to avoid such occurrences. On a delay-spacing chart, the phenomenon of explosive malfunctioning is explained by dividing the chart into different regions, while the shape and size of each region could vary from one explosive to the other. Over seventy blasts have been carried out at the CANMET Experimental Mine to identify the malfunctioning characteristics of specific emulsion, water-gel and dynamite explosives. In each experiment, two parallel blastholes, 32 mm in diameter and 1.7 m deep, were drilled downwards in an underground drift.

Jan 1, 1994

By Masanobu Morita, Koichi Kurokana, Kenji Hashimoto, Yoji Tasaki, Yukio Iida

"It has been the long desire of blasting engineer to realize the automatization of tunnelblasting to improve the safety and efficiency. As for bore hole drilling, the automatizationhas been achieved by the improvement of drilling machine. However, the firing process isstill depending on the hand-operation. We developed the wireless initiating system using amacrowave power as a step for automatization of tunnel blasting operation. In this paper,we present the outline of the wireless initiating system and the results of experimentalstudy of the wireless detonator which is key component of the system."

Jan 1, 1993

By Shulin Nie

The detonability of a chemically gassed emulsion explosive has been studied in recent tests, after the study of three micro-balloon sensitized emulsion explosives. Blasting experiments in steel pipes and computer simulation have been carried out. This study showed that the gassed emulsion explosive and the micro-balloon sensitized emulsion explosives have different desensitization features. Namely, the gassed emulsion explosive can recover its detonability very rapidly after the pressure vanishes, in contrary to the micro-balloon sensitized explosives.

Jan 1, 1997

By Raymond H. Green, Mitchell W. Green

The authors examined the application of precise millisecond delay electric blasting at a well-known Vermont quarry. The paper explains how the use of a new high-accuracy electric delay detonator has improved fragmentation, raised productivity 10%, simplified blast design, and increased the ability to predict results from blasting.

Jan 1, 1986

By R Fox, R Watt

On behalf of ICI's group of explosives companies around the world, a research programme is being undertaken to develop a new electrical shotfiring system which will have markedly improved safety features and operational advantages over existing initiating systems. The paper describes the development of the 'Magnadet' Electric Detonator and 'Magna' Primer and the field experience to date. It also indicates those areas where further work is being carried out on modification of the basic designs to meet specific application requirements.

Jan 1, 1981

By Kenneth Eltschlager, Steven V. Crum, David E. Siskind

The Bureau of Mines was funded by the Office of Surface Mining (OSM) to determine how blast vibrations from a local surface coal mine were affecting homes in the towns of Daylight and McCutchanville, located in southwestern Indiana near Evansville. Although Daylight was about two miles from the blasting and McCutchanville four to five miles away, many residents claimed that blast vibrations were damaging their homes. At least one citizen felt that the vibrations worsened at the time the mine began cast blasting.

Jan 1, 1992